International philanthropy couple donates $25M to Sarasota Memorial Hospital

A Sarasota couple, Jerry and Karen Kolschowsky, has donated $25 million to Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, with the money geared toward innovation, education and research.

The gift is through the Gerald A. and Karen A. Kolschowsky Foundation, according to a statement. The foundation, based in Downers Grove, Illinois, outside Chicago, had $38 million in assets in its most recent fiscal year, according to public tax filings. Jerry Kolschowsky is the retired chairman and co-CEO of OSI Industries, an Aurora, Illinois, meat and poultry processing giant, with customers that, since it was founded in 1909, have included McDonald’s, Subway and Starbucks. It had $7.9 billion in revenue in 2022 and is No. 76 on Forbes’s list of America’s largest companies.

The Kolschowskys and their family foundation, the release says, have been quietly helping the community-owned health system expand its education and research programs for nearly 20 years. The Kolschowskys’ latest $25 million donation was the catalyst that allowed Sarasota Memorial Hospital to break ground on a new $75 million Research and Education Institute this past June, Sarasota Memorial CEO David Verinder says.